Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Therapy As A Status Symbol: U.S. Health System Creating Culture Of Mental Health Haves And Have Nots

The mental health landscape caters to the "worried well" who can pay $400 an hour and not to those who are actually struggling with a serious mental health issue, one expert says.

KQED:
How Therapy Became A Hobby Of The Wealthy – Rather Than A Necessity For The Mentally Ill
There’s something that really bothers Stanford psychiatry professor Keith Humphreys. When he thinks of all the years he spends training the next generation of psychiatrists, the enormous investment in medical school and residency, he wants them to devote that education to taking care of people with serious mental illness. But many of them instead set up a private practice, where they can charge $400 an hour in cash to help people who Humphreys calls “the worried well” –- people who enjoy the self-exploration of therapy but do not necessarily have a mental health problem. (Dembosky, 5/24)

Meanwhile, between insufficient reimbursements and the paperwork, therapists just aren't finding it worth their effort to work with insurance companies —